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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: skinowski who wrote (254855)	6/18/2008 11:10:15 AM
From: alanrs	Respond to of 793801

BTW, I disagree about antidepressants. Maybe they are used a bit too widely, but to those who suffer from true depression those drugs are - literally - a life saver. My daughter was on antidepressants at elephant tranquilizer doses, and it did her a lot of good. Probably saved her life. She got off them with the Doctors misgivings being duly noted. Maybe there will come a time when she needs them again. Anything can be abused. Drugs, legal or illegal, often are. ARS

To: skinowski who wrote (254855)	6/18/2008 11:16:06 AM
From: alanrs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793801

"Maybe - just maybe - we ARE winning the war on drugs?" I have to single this out as most likely being wishful thinking. Recently there was some PR about how the situation has improved in Columbia, with the government and police not being in total chaos. It went on some, but ended with the interesting fact that now the drug routes have to go through Venezuela. While that is not a bad thing, it just illustrates the hydra qualities. Where there is demand, supply will occur. There is demand here. ARS

To: skinowski who wrote (254855)	6/18/2008 11:57:31 AM
From: alanrs	Respond to of 793801

"at least we allow social taboos to survive - for now, until we'll figure out what we are dealing with. For we don't know." I thought about this a while and decided it sounded a lot like 'don't ask, don't tell'. It's really ok the way it is. A vast segment of the population (10-25-40%, I don't know, but demographically significant-your secretary, Fred the plumber) goes home and throws back a beer and smokes a joint, eats dinner, has sex, watches TV. No big deal, demand is being met. Everybody pretends. Another side to the argument I rarely hear is that those convicted of drug crimes have a more difficult employment future. There are statistics that show unemployment of around 9% overall with varying higher rates for minorities. Leaves 3-6% of our working population in the discouraged worker category. I wonder how many of them, possibly with limited work skills to start with have been through the drug system. It must lead to some portion resigning themselves to their fate-the old "fuck it, I may as well be a drug addict". Those discouraged workers had to come from somewhere. Hard to quantify, as is quantifying how many new people would try it out as a novelty and then go on to more damaging use. ARS And just because I couldn't resist. In case you're bored. youtube.com